Citrine is a member of the quartz family, and is the
birthstone for November. Like
all crystal quartzes, the citrine has a hardness of 7
on the Mohs scale and is thus, to a large extent,
insensitive to scratches. It won't immediately take
offense at being knocked about either, since its
cleavage properties are non-existent. The name is
derived from the colour - the yellow of the lemon - ,
although the most sought-after stones have a clear,
radiant yellowish to brownish red. Most citrine
gemstone have been heat treated.
Grading System Used
Color is the most important and complex to grade. Color is made up of three components, hue, saturation and tone. Color will be graded on a scale of 1 to 10 taking these three factors into consideration.
Clarity is graded on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being loop clean under a 10X loop.
Brilliance - will be a combination of Cut, Sparkle, light return, Proportion and Crystal. Graded on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best.
Total Quality Rating - Is the combined score of these 3 with a possible best score of 10
Grading System Used
Color is the most important and complex to grade. Color is made up of three components, hue, saturation and tone. Color will be graded on a scale of 1 to 10 taking these three factors into consideration.
Clarity is graded on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being loop clean under a 10X loop.
Brilliance - will be a combination of Cut, Sparkle, light return, Proportion and Crystal. Graded on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best.
Total Quality Rating - Is the combined score of these 3 with a possible best score of 10
